Sunday, 23 October 2011

The Big Mow

Saturday was again another wonderful day at Long Lane Pastures in Finchley http://www.longlanepasture.org/index.html.

The weather was stunning considering it’s coming up to the end of October, which helped the day pass with considerable pleasure despite all the hard work.

The kids were straight in with the usual eagerness for the weekly litter picking and whilst doing the rounds had the wonder of discovering a Frog not yet in hibernation, a small contingent of mice and a resting Red Admiral butterfly.

We were constantly flocked by some beautiful Long-Tailed Tits, and the starlings still practicing their flocking techniques, but alas, as always they were far to fast for my camera skills and I didn’t even end up getting a blur…just many empty trees…lol.

We once again helped to clear a small patch of bramble around some young trees on the south bank, but then we got on with the big mow and rake to tidy up the edges and banks ready for new growth and planting ready for next spring.

The kids really loved the hard work of raking up the grass and weeds into piles for composting and managed to do it for ages with out the smallest complaint.

At the end of the afternoon we came across a beautiful shield bug that had decided to make my eldest boys hand its temporary resting place.

The wonder of working in a beautiful space and being within nature is a wondrous experience and I recommend it to everyone.